Absolute Craft-Chapter 66: An Abandoned Village (6)

Chapter 66: An Abandoned Village (6)

"Adaptation is the strongest skill," Blake said.

Joel nodded, his gaze fixed on the hulking mass of undead flesh stomping toward Kyria and Wolfang. "You taught me that, big bro."

All of a sudden, they had a new ally in this competition—an ally of sorts. Joel wasn’t sure how far Blake intended to push this mini-boss for their advantage, but it definitely looked like it would tip the scales in their favor, right?

Blake offered a faint smile. "Kyria’s clever. Rather than trying to outdo him at his own game, let’s sabotage his plan in our own way."

Within a minute, Kyria and Wolfang noticed the butcher entering the main plaza, lumbering toward their growing stack of zombie parts. The hulking brute drooled at the sight of so much rotting flesh, eager to devour it all.

"So that’s your play, Superbia," Kyria muttered. "You’re a dirty bastard."

"You say that after kicking him in the face?" Wolfang shook his head.

"He wears a helmet all the time anyway," Kyria countered.

"So what?" Wolfang sighed.

Under normal circumstances, the butcher wouldn’t pose much of a threat. They knew a handful of ways to subdue the rotting monstrosity, but having to protect their own pile of zombie parts severely limited their options.

Kyria, boasting an epic title and skills, and Wolfang, an experienced swordsman relying on real-world abilities, would likely find a way. Although Wolfang lacked an epic class or weapon, he was a reliable asset. As for Kyria...

Thunder rumbled overhead.

Kyria dashed toward the butcher and leaped upward, positioning himself in front of the monster’s head before delivering a heavy kick that knocked it backward. The butcher landed with a thunderous crash. As Kyria touched down, the brute loomed over him again, cleaver raised.

It brought the weapon slamming down on him!

Wolfang intervened, blocking the brunt of the attack with his longsword. Still, the blow forced him back a few steps—tolerable in a normal fight, but far from ideal here...

Watching their struggle, Blake sneered. "Move our parts to the house and lock every window and door."

"Got it!" Joel replied.

While Kyria and Wolfang wrestled with the butcher, Joel darted around the plaza, snatching up body parts and tossing them closer to their makeshift base. Blake soon joined in, guiding Joel in fighting more zombies. Between slaying monsters, he bent down occasionally to fling stray limbs toward their pile.

For the next ten minutes, Kyria and Wolfang contended with the butcher’s interruption. Despite the inconvenience, they managed to bring it down with minimal losses, thanks to crowd-control skills and real-life techniques—like knocking the zombie off balance. However, it cost them precious time and energy.

Afterward, for the following twenty minutes, both sides poured themselves into the contest with relentless determination. Blood spattered across the plaza, forging crimson rivulets in the pavement’s cracks. Limbs and chunks of flesh flew about, only to be hastily gathered and deposited onto each team’s respective heap. Neither side paid the other much heed, focused solely on amassing parts.

Then, something unexpected happened.

All the dismembered zombie parts began resonating with each other. Blood coiled upward in a bizarre display, like a thousand serpents rising to survey their domain. The writhing mass of blood then surged toward both piles. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Blake and the others stared in confusion. From a distant rooftop, Beatrix stood while Eru sat beside her, both equally puzzled by the phenomenon.

Moments later, every zombie in the area let out a collective, piercing screech. Shockwaves trailed their pounding footsteps, and the roar intensified with each second, signaling a stampede bearing down on the main plaza.

"This is unheard of! It’s never happened before!" Joel shouted.

Kyria and Wolfang shared his alarm, but Blake—knowing little about this zone—figured it had to be an unexpected event. Their reactions told him it wasn’t part of the normal scenario. Possibly a rare or even a one-time occurrence.

"Regroup. Let’s join Beatrix," Blake said.

Joel nodded. Wolfang and Kyria followed suit, and soon the group assembled atop a partially collapsed rooftop, watching the relentless horde converge below.

"Did we serve them some kind of irresistible feast?" Wolfang wondered aloud.

"Not sure," Blake replied, his attention unwavering as the chaos escalated.

Then, the zombies screeched even louder, their flesh inexplicably peeling away. Their newly exposed skeletons crumbled, and the writhing tissue slid across the plaza, merging with the heaps the two teams had amassed. In seconds, it formed what anyone would call an ocean of flesh.

A system message abruptly filled their vision:

<Worldwide Announcement: The Rotten Leviathan’s Resurrection has begun.>

<Everyone in the tutorial zones has received a new quest>

<Prevent the Rotten Leviathan’s Resurrection (Legendary)—a minion of Death, The Rotten Leviathan has found a way back into the living world to serve its master’s wish and fulfill the purpose of its existence. If its return is not stopped, the tutorial zones shall cease to exist, and no new players will be able to enter the world of Ashen World Online.>

Throughout the Abandoned Villages, Eternal Winter Dungeons, and Eternal Winter Graveyard, every zombie shrieked, frantically seeking this ocean of flesh meant to resurrect the final beta boss.

In the Abandoned Village where Blake’s group stood, a crack tore open in the sky, revealing the dark skies above—the Eternal Winter Graveyard. The massive flood of flesh surged through that rift, eager to flood the epic zone that existed only in these tutorial lands.

Blake stood there, his heart pounding. ’It all began with you.’

The Rotten Leviathan had been so formidable during the final beta test that Blake, overwhelmed and infuriated, lashed out at his teammates. He pushed himself past his limits to handle the beast’s grueling mechanics, and no one could keep up with him. His orders bordered on impossible, and he refused compromise, trusting only in his own strength.

As a result, his comrades left him, choosing to follow the Alliance’s strategy. Ever since that day, he had been known as The Humbled Dog.

All these memories rushed back to Blake. Now, he finally had the chance to conquer them—once and for all.